So, Braves baseball, same as it ever was. An early lead from homers, a quality starter faltering late, bullpen issues and a late rally wasted.
I kinda listened to this one while doing chores around the house, but I think I got the gist of it. It was a fairly briskly played affair marked by Wood’s pitching early on, and a couple of nice plays from both of the starting hurlers and Simba doing his thing. Small ball got one, but long ball got three. A sac fly by good old CJ coupled with a pair of homers, one by the resurgent Freeman and another by the surprising Pierzynski.
And that looked like it might carry the day until the bottom of the seventh. Some umpiring and a bit of hitting by the Jays was Wood’s undoing. Still, he was up four to three as we went to the eighth. Better small ballers might’ve improved the Braves’ advantage, but no such luck.
Johnson got busted hard again for a pair on Joey Bats dinger. The home side was able to mount to come back though in the top half of the 9th on a homer by prodigal son KJ and the Jays were Avilanched in the bottom and we were in extras where the fun began. Some very intriguing ball and strike calls by the umpire killed a Braves rally aborning. Sugar Ray came out of the dugout for the Jays tenth and was TKOd right off the stool by Donaldson​ on the second pitch he saw.
Rubber match today. As much as I thought last night’s game was the kind of game good teams win, this was the kind of game bad teams lose. We’ll see what the team’s real identity is soon enough, I suspect.
Pretty sure we are all too well aware of this team’s identity.
Thank you for the recap, spike.
I expect Shelby to pitch well today. Go Braves.
Alex Wood is letting me down 🙁
Wood pitched well enough to win, but Fredi managed poorly enough to lose. The game was lost in the dugout.
Yeah, but as the season rolls along, 5.4 K/9 and almost 4 BB/9 isn’t gonna cut it.
I know, small sample. I think he needs to get that change-up going again.
Oh. My Gosh.
I just saw that play where Andrelton cut off that ball in LF to keep it a single. Wow, wow, wow. ‘Rissa, enter it into the competition!
@4 At some point, you have to take off the training wheels. It should have been seven innings and two runs anyway. It’s all about him and Teheran now, and Teheran only went five.
Does Jonny Gomes’ double count as a rally killer? We have two fewer runners on than before.
@6, Andrelton spiking the ball in disgust at the end of the play makes it particularly awesome.
When his career is done, I’d love to see a map of his true range, like, the farthest-out-from-shortstop places where he managed to make a play.
Now that’s a nice start.
My wife’s friend dated Dalton Pompey a few years ago. He broke her heart.
We enjoyed that.
@11. That reminds me of how my wife went on a couple dates with Anthony Recker (Mets second catcher). I take particular joy whenever he fails against us.
When trouble looms, make them hit it to short.
Really hope Shelby can give us eight.
@12
He was a home wrecker.
Ithankyou…
Is Andrelton Simmons an All-Star with a 100 OPS+ and his defense?
Is there and OPS+ type statistic that is adjusted for position?
@16,
Will he MAKE the all star team? Probably.
But that doesn’t make him an All Star, that makes him a Hall of Famer. Make it 110, and he is inner circle.
Agreed. He maintains that OPS+ for his entire career and doesn’t slow down too much on defense, then he very well could be. The player that I would love for him to resemble would be… Kevin Seitzer.
I really like Dalton Pompey.
Enjoyed Freddie’s baserunning there.
At work and can’t watch. What’d I miss?
Chip is probably a great husband, father and friend.
There are better play-by-play announcers, however.
This umpire crew will probably get a postseason series. Ugh
Suddenly Shelby is yanking everything.
I don’t know of any purely offensive metrics that are adjusted for position. WAR has the positional adjustment, of course, but that includes defense too.
Lord almighty. Can our guys stop hitting a wall in the 6th inning, please? We won’t have anyone in the pen still standing by July.
The pen should have been up two batters ago. This is where Fredi is the worst
Thank you, Alex.
Please get the pen ready.
Whew. Six innings and 100 pitches will do, Shelby. Make it so, Fredi.
Time to go get him
How are we going to get these guys deeper in to games? Both Wood and Miller fall apart after the 5th.
If Miller throws another pitch today, I’m going on strike
Shelby Miller puts on a clinic in how not to pitch with a lead. Striking out the side in the fifth was a bad omen.
Nice job, kids. Hope you get to go another inning, Cody.
I think it’s safe to say that Cody Martin has been the biggest surprise of the season so far.
Jonny, you utter idiot.
Veterans err occasionally.
Or what AAR said.
Nice job, Cody. Put it away, Braves.
@38 Botched one yesterday, too. The Captain of the Fun Police stayed in the batter’s box arguing on a passed-ball third strike.
Let Cody finish it? Wouldn’t mind him staying stretched out.
The oft-repeated stat that our DHs had 4 total hits last year in interleague play gets worst every time it’s said.
Jason Grilli throws baseballs good.
Yep. Take tomorrow off, boys.
Shame we blew the game yesterday, but that’s probably the best three-day offensive performance since last spring.
This team continues to look pretty good so far, all things considered. Not sure what to make of it, but I’m obviously liking it so far.
I like snow days, rainbows, and Braves 2015. Win, win, win.
Obviously I’m convinced the wheels are going to come off the wagon sooner or later, but for the moment I’m determined to enjoy this if only for Freeman and Simba’s sake. I’d hate to see one of their prime seasons wasted.
Kind of amazing that the offense looks better this year than in 2014.
Which is going to make Simpson and Caray insufferable with the “it’s because they’re not striking out” stuff.
Recapped.
Nice win. Wish we’d swept. Next series at NY will be tough–I don’t trust Stults and Cahill, and Gee/Niese always seem to have our number